Secrets of the Lake
by GoddessArtemis1999
Summary: What if Spencer was pushed in the lake instead of Jenna? What will she find when she is well enough to go back? Rated T for minor language in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**So I was doing my biology homework, minding my own business, when I was suddenly hit with the idea: What if Spencer was in the lake instead of Jenna? Basically –A pushes Spencer in the lake, Toby is still in Rosewood, and this deals with everyone's reaction. I don't think I saw a story like this anywhere else… Hopefully you guys like it!**

The party was in full swing at Paige's house as guests rushed over to Emily Fields, the birthday girl. Aria pushed through the many students who she knew from Rosewood High in order to get to her best friend.

"Happy Birthday!" she exclaimed to Emily, once she got to her.

"Thanks!" Emily replied, hugging her friend.

They started to push through the crowd to go find a quieter place.

"Did Hanna come?" Emily asked.

"No, she wasn't really in a… partying mood."

"Of course, I totally understand, I was just wondering. Where's Spencer? I could have sworn I saw her before."

"Yeah, she's here. I don't know where she went though."

"Let's go look for her," Emily said.

The two friends looked around the house for their missing friend, but there was no sign of her.

Emily started getting a little worried. "What if –A got a hold of her?"

"Don't worry, Em, maybe Toby decided to come and she's off somewhere making out with him. Text him. In the meantime, let's look in the upstairs bathroom."

Emily nodded and pulled out her phone. She quickly hit _Compose New Text_ and searched through her contacts until she found _Toby Cavanaugh_. She quickly pressed on his name and sent her text: _Is Spencer w/ you_?

Toby answered very quickly, to her surprise. She and Aria were halfway up the stairs when she got a text back. _I thought she was w/ you at your party. Sorry I couldn't come by the way. Text me when you find her. _

_Will do_ she texted back. "Spencer isn't with Toby," she informed her friend.

"Let's not panic yet. She's probably in the bathroom."

But she wasn't in the bathroom, and the two girls were getting extremely nervous.

"Maybe she's talking with friends?" Emily stated, her voice a little shaky.

They searched through the whole house, calling her name. There was no sign of her anywhere. The only thing they found was her jacket draped across the back of a kitchen chair.

"So we know she's definitely here," Emily said. "We know she didn't leave."

"Wait a sec," Aria said, slapping her forehead. "She said something about going to the garage to get fireworks, and then setting them up outside."

"God, Aria, there was really no need to give me a heart attack like that."

The two friends laughed, and went over to talk to Emily's girlfriend, Paige, and Aria's boyfriend, Jake. Jake was talking to Paige about how he was teaching Aria karate.

"Yeah, I think I'd like to learn how to do karate. And Emily too!" Paige exclaimed to Jake as she saw her girlfriend and her girlfriend's best friend walking over.

"Oh God, what are you getting me into this time, Paige?" Emily laughed, giving her girlfriend a light kiss on the cheek as a greeting.

"I was gonna sign us up for karate. Jake is the teacher of that karate place in Philly. You know, so we could be protected from you-know-who."

"Wait," Jake said, cutting in. "You girls need protection from somebody?" He looked at Aria, who was glaring at Paige, but to him she just shrugged.

"Paige," Emily hissed. "No, Jake, just in case something happens, you know, with bad people out there."

Jake didn't look like he believed them, but he didn't mention anything. "Hey look, I see some of my friends here. I'm gonna go catch up with them, see ya later." He gave Aria a kiss before walking to the opposite side of the room to talk to people his own age.

"Paige, can you be any more subtle?" Emily growled.

"I'm sorry, Em! I totally forgot that he didn't know!" Paige exclaimed.

"Just don't let it happen again," Emily warned, "God, where the hell is Spencer? Does it really take that long to set up fireworks?"

"Paige, me and Em are gonna go look for Spencer. I think I saw Trisha Kallanan trying to steal a vase from the living room, you should go make sure she didn't take it.

"I hate that girl!" Paige groaned, and stalked off to the living room.

Aria and Emily walked throughout the house again, looking for Spencer. They started on the second floor, and she wasn't there. They went through the first floor, where they saw Paige in the living room arguing with Trisha, who was holding a vase. Aria stifled a laugh. They went downstairs to look for Spencer, maybe she was still looking for fireworks? But that wasn't the case. Spencer wasn't there.

They went outside to look by the lake for their best friend. Aria saw Jake, who looked like he was getting ready to leave.

"Hey," Aria said, tapping him on the shoulder. "Leaving so soon?"

"I'm just really tired, and I have to get up early to teach tomorrow," Jake explained.

"Please, just stay a bit longer?"

As Aria tried to persuade Jake into staying just a little longer, Emily wandered a little away from them. She didn't want them to feel like she was invading. Her chocolate eyes scanned through the forest, looking for any signs of Spencer. Her eyes widened as they saw a figure face down in the lake, and that figure looked a lot like Spencer.

"SPENCER!" Emily screamed. She started to try to run through the water, and she heard Jake come running in after her, after hearing her scream. She and Jake started dragging Spencer out of the water. They laid her down on the dock. It was truly frightening. Her lips were almost blue and slightly parted, and her eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead at nothing. She was barely breathing, and Emily could feel her breaths getting slower by the second.

Aria was already on the phone with 911, and Emily heard her say, "…found her in the water, don't know how she got in…" She was getting hysterical.

All of a sudden, Jake put his index and middle fingers against Spencer's neck. "Oh my God, she's not breathing!"

Not breathing? Emily realized that Jake was right. She couldn't see her friend's chest rising and falling down anymore. Her eyes widened and she wasn't able to form words. She was vaguely aware of the party guests crowding around, wondering what was wrong. She barely felt Paige gently pulling her away from Spencer and Jake, as he started to perform CPR on her until the ambulance got there. She scarcely heard Aria screaming and crying into her cell phone, with the patient operator who she was relaying everything that was going on to. All she could do is stand and pray as the ambulance lights got closer and closer…

**So um, that's the first chapter. I'll be posting the second one soon, possibly tomorrow. The second chapter will probably be part in Spencer's POV, Emily's POV, and maybe a little of Toby's. Please review, reviews really motivate me to write more and tell me what I could do to improve the story… What do you think? Remember, every review motivates me. :) **

**~GA1999**


	2. Chapter 2

**Secrets of the Lake Chapter 2**

The ambulance got closer and closer, and finally, it was there. Doctors and nurses ran out of the car and pushed through the throngs of people to get to Spencer. They saw Jake attempting CPR and right when they saw him, he shouted, "She's breathing!" He then saw the nurses and doctors and moved out of the way to let the doctors check up on her.

One doctor held his hand to her wrist. "Her breathing is slow, but we have a pulse!"

The rest of his crew started to load Spencer onto a gurney and roll her into the ambulance. The doctor looked around for Jake, who was busy consoling Aria as she watched her best friend being loaded into an ambulance.

"Thank you, young man. If you hadn't performed CPR, she would be dead right now."

Emily started crying harder at that. The doctor took off in the ambulance.

Jake and Paige started bringing their girlfriends over to Jake's car. It was obvious that Jake would be driving the three girls over to the hospital to avoid a car accident.

"Em," Paige cleared her throat. "You should call Toby… and tell him…"

Emily's eyes widened. "Of course," she murmured, "he will be so devastated…"

Emily took out her phone and scrolled through her contacts looking for Toby. She pressed on the button to call him, put the phone to her ear and took a deep breath.

"Hello?" Toby answered sleepily. Emily looked at the time. 11:00 PM. Huh. Woops.

"Toby? It's Em…"

"Hey Em, is everything ok? It's 11:00 and I've had a huge day at work…"

"Toby, Spencer's in the hospital," she blurted out, the tears starting again.

"WHAT?!" she heard him exclaim. He was definitely awake now.

"She… We were at my party and she was going to set up the fireworks, or at least that's what Aria told me, and she didn't come back for a while, so we went to look for her, and we found her in the lake, and she wasn't breathing!"

Emily heard Toby rushing around his room, probably changing to meet them at the hospital. "Is she… is she alive?" he asked, sounding a little nervous.

"Yeah, for now," Emily sighed, throwing an appreciative glance to Jake. "Jake was able to do CPR and he got her breathing again."

"Tell Jake a million times thank you. God, where are my keys!"

"Toby, we'll pick you up."

"Thank you so much Em, just get here soon," he sounded on the verge of tears.

"We'll be there in 5."

She promptly hung up so that she could give Jake the directions to get to Toby's loft. They were there in four minutes, not that she was counting or anything… Toby was already outside the door, tears streaming down his face. Emily reached across Aria and opened the door for Toby. Aria moved over to the middle of the car and Toby slid in beside her. Jake and Paige were sitting up front.

As soon as Toby got in and closed the door, Jake sped off in the direction of the hospital. Toby put his head in his hands and Aria put a comforting arm around him, since she was closer to him than Emily was.

They spent the rest of the ride in silence. Once they got to the hospital, Jake dropped them off at the front, telling them to go without him, and he would find a parking space and get in as soon as he could. The four rushed inside, immediately going to the receptionist's desk.

"Hi, we were just wondering where Spencer Hastings's room is?"

"Are you family?" the receptionist asked. "We only tell family."

"I'm her sister," a new voice said. The four turned around in shock and saw Melissa Hastings standing in front of them. Their eyes widened in shock.

"Your name?" the receptionist asked.

"Melissa Hastings."

"Relationship to the patient?"

"I'm her sister!" Melissa exclaimed, getting fed up with all the questions.

"I'm going to have to see some I.D."

"Well I left my purse at home! Do you actually expect a girl to grab her purse and wallet when she gets a phone call from the hospital telling her that her sister _drowned_ that night?"

"I'm sorry, we can't let anybody without I.D. to see any patients."

"Listen here, woman," Melissa lowered her voice and leaned across the receptionist's desk. "My parents are the founders of a major law firm. I don't think they would appreciate it if they found out that I was denied to see my _sister_. So either tell us what room she is in, or we will sue you for everything you own."

That was obviously enough for the receptionist to say that Spencer was in Room 611, and the five friends/family rushed over to the elevator to get to the 6th floor. The ride up was agonizingly slow. When they finally got there, they rushed to room 611.

A doctor was walking out of there with a solemn expression on his face. He saw the five walking over. "You must be family," he said to them. "I'm Dr. Chris, Ms. Hastings's doctor."

"What's going on?" Melissa asked, her voice quivering.

The doctor hesitated. "We aren't exactly sure… we do now that she drowned, and we do now that there was quite a bit of a struggle."

"How do you know?" Paige asked, looking very alarmed.

"There are a couple scratched on her forehead, meaning that someone was holding her underwater and she was trying to fight it. But what really made up believe that there was someone else there was the fact that she was a bit… drugged."

"What?" Aria asked.

"She… When whoever it was took her to the lake, they were holding a rag or something of the sort over her mouth, and we believe she breathed in the drugs and/or chemicals on the rag. That would make her fighting significantly weaker, but she did have enough strength to try and fight her attacker."

Melissa's hands flew over her mouth. "Oh my…" she trailed off, not really sure of what she should say. "Will she… will she be okay?"

The doctor shrugged. "We will know more about that if she wakes up."

"If?" Jake asked, just coming through the elevators. He explained to Toby, "I told the receptionist I was with you guys, and she let me up."

The doctor looked like he was trying to figure out how to phrase his next words. "Ms. Hastings was hit in the head with a heavy object, and we are currently trying to figure out what it was. But we don't know if the force that she was hit with affected her brain in any way. We still have to run some tests, but that will be a little after the medicine sinks in."

"Can we… see her?" Toby asked in a small voice.

The doctor hesitated. "Only one of you may."

"Go," Melissa said to Toby.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Of course he wanted to go.

"Yes. She would want to see you anyway."

Toby then rushed into the room. His heart almost stopped as he saw the girl he loved hooked up to different machines and wires. He gently pulled a chair next to her bed and watched her try to take a shaky breath.

"Come on, Spence," he whispered. "You could do this. I believe in you. I love you."

A doctor walked into the room and Toby took that as a hint that he had to come back later. He placed a small kiss to his girlfriend's forehead and got up to leave.

The night of Paige's party, Spencer was just walking around, looking for fireworks, when all of a sudden a person grabbed her from behind, and tied a rag around her mouth. Her eyes widened, and she flailed around, trying to get out of this person's grip. She tried to breathe, and almost gagged at the smell. Whoever it was was drugging her. He/She dragged her to the lake. She widened her eyes as she realized what the person was doing. They threw her into the lake and she struggled to stay afloat, but the person shoved her head underwater, and kept it there. She still struggled. She felt the person's nails dig into her forehead as she struggled. For that one spectacular moment she was allowed to breathe, she saw a blurry figure who she could barely make out. But she finally did, and she couldn't believe it! It was… Her thoughts were cut short as she felt something hard hit her head. And then everything went black.

She passed out and she could argue that she had died. But she wasn't dead, she knew that. She heard slow beeping all around her, and she heard Emily and Aria screaming at the doctors to get them to help her. She felt Toby's hand slipping into hers at one point. She heard everything he said… "Come on, Spence, you could do this. I believe in you. I love you." He then placed a small kiss on her forehead and she heard the chair moving as he stood up. All of a sudden, Spencer shot up in bed, her eyes wide open. She started coughing a lot. Toby immediately back into the room. "What… what's going on?" he asked.

Spencer tried looking around, but her eyesight was completely black. She blinked multiple times before her eyesight finally cleared up. She saw four doctors in front of her, two of them fiddling with different wires connected to her, one preparing medicine, and another started to gently ask questions.

"Spencer. Can you hear and see me?"

She nodded, hoping that was a good enough response.

"Dr. Green over there, he's the doctor preparing medicine. It will help stop the coughing. Just lay back down and relax, and the medicine will start to work immediately."

Spencer followed the doctor's instructions, she didn't care what they had to do, as long as they made it stop. She felt like she was going to cough up a lung.

The doctor, the one called Dr. Green, came over and inserted a needle into her left forearm. She immediately winced. No, it didn't hurt, but Spencer had always hated needles. Once all the medicine was injected, Dr. Green gently removed the needle and her coughing slowed down and eventually stopped.

The nurse that was assigned to Spencer's room, Nurse Finn, asked Spencer if she would mind answering a couple questions. Spencer shook her head no, and Toby came up from behind and gently sat down next to her, grabbing a hold of her cold hand.

The first question Nurse Finn asked was, "Can you talk?"

Spencer tried talking again, but she couldn't. She shook her head no.

Nurse Finn jotted something down on her clipboard. Spencer felt her eyes closing, feeling the need to fall back into a deep sleep. She closed her eyes but Nurse Finn said, "Ms. Hastings. Just a couple more minutes, and then we will give you something to help you sleep. Right now, we just need you to cooperate. Can you do that?"

Spencer nodded and opened her eyes.

Nurse Finn instructed, "Now, take 20 deep breaths for me."

Spencer tried doing as she was told, but as she tried to exhale the first breath, she found she was unable to breathe. It was like she was stuck. She started hyperventilating, trying to get oxygen to enter her lungs.

"What's going on?" Toby asked worriedly.

Nurse Finn couldn't answer at the moment, she was busy trying to call a doctor in.

Toby fought the urge to groan. Of course it had to be their luck they got an assistant nurse during this. It was obvious she was an assistant because she was wearing pink scrubs instead of green like the nurses did. The doctors wore blue.

One of the doctors from before came rushing into the room. He quickly prepared an injection. _No, no more needles_, Spencer thought, even though she knew it was necessary. After the injection, the doctor placed an oxygen mask gently over her mouth. She promptly drifted off to sleep.

"What was that?" Toby demanded.

Nurse Finn excused herself and left the room.

"A lot of water entered your girlfriend's lungs when she was forced underwater. This water in the lungs can cause cardiac pulmonary edema, which can sometimes lead to respiratory distress and in certain cases, death," Dr. Chris explained.

"What happens in respiratory distress?

"Respiratory distress basically refers to having difficulty in breathing. Unfortunately, it seems that Ms. Hastings might have trouble breathing for the rest of her life. We will have to address that problem when she wakes up again. There is nothing we could do about it now."

Toby nodded his head, taking it all in.

Dr. Chris said to Toby, "I'll be back tomorrow. There will be a few doctors on night duty. We will have to move Ms. Hastings to the ICU just incase she can't breathe again. The doctor's will be at her side in a quick second if you press the red button that will be next to the bed."

Toby nodded, standing up as a couple assistant nurses came in and moved the bed out of the room and into the elevator, where Toby went also. They went to the next floor up, and the nurses and Toby walked into Room 763. The positioned Spencer's bed by the window, and, as Dr. Chris said, there was a red button next to the bed. The nurses quickly left and closed the door.

Toby sighed and took hold of Spencer's limp hand in his. He sat back and pulled out the book he had with him, The Catcher in the Rye in French, L'attrape-coeurs. Spencer got him that book when she first started tutoring him. Smiling, Toby turned the page to Chapter 1 and began reading, taking his eyes off the text every few minutes to look at Spencer sleeping peacefully.

**Well there's Chapter 2! Review please!**

**~A**


	3. Chapter 3

**Secrets of the Lake Chapter 3**

Spencer dreamt of the hospital room. Yeah, yeah, sounds boring, but it was… an odd dream. She was lying down on the hospital bed, and she saw Toby passed out on the chair next to her. He was holding a book in his hands. L'attrape-coeurs, The Catcher in the Rye. The book she gave him. She took a shaky breath, with the help of the oxygen mask. Just then, a figure shuffled into the room. He or she gently took the oxygen mask off. "You shouldn't need it for now, Spencer."

"Ali?" Spencer asked in disbelief, taking another shaky breath.

"Hey Spence. I've been trying to find a way to get in touch with you. This seemed like the only way."

"Are… we dead?"

Alison simply laughed. "Do I look dead? Honey, I'm more alive than I've ever been."

"But… they found your body… if that wasn't yours… whose was it?"

"That, my dear, is a story for another place, for another time."

Spencer tried to sit up, but Alison pushed her back down. "Rest up, Spence, you'll need your strength."

"Ali… do you… do you know who Red Coat and –A are?"

"I see them everywhere I turn."

"Then tell me!" Spencer pleaded.

Alison smiled. "You see them too. You're not too far from the truth, Spence. Don't over think everything. They are right under your nose." She turned to leave the room, but then walked back over the Spencer's hospital bed, sitting down on the edge.

"Tell Emily, Hanna, and Aria to be careful. Also, one of the people you are close with hasn't been telling you the whole truth about the night of Paige's party. Be careful, Spence." With that, she gave Spencer a small smile, placed the oxygen mask over her mouth again, and left the room.

Spencer's head hurt. What was Ali talking about? Did she completely dream that? Or was it real?

A nurse came into her room. "Oh, you're up Ms. Hastings. How do you feel?" She took the oxygen mask off so she could talk.

"I feel better," Spencer replied, her voice raspy.

The nurse jotted something down on her clipboard. Spencer just wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep. She would have, but then Toby stirred from his sleep and saw Spencer awake.

"Spence! You're awake!" He gently hugged her, trying not to put too much pressure on her.

Spencer smiled. She loved being in his arms. Toby looked down to his phone. "The girls have been wanting to see you." He looked up to the nurse. "Can they come in?"

"Yes," the nurse said. "They just can't stay for long." She turned to Spencer. "We'll have to do tests on your head to see if you have any internal bleeding in your head." With that she swept out of the room.

"I'm gonna go get them, ok?" Toby said. Spencer nodded.

She sat in thought for a couple minutes. Did she have a dream? What was Ali's whole speech about someone that wasn't telling the truth about the party?

"SPENCER!" someone screeched.

Spencer put her hands to her ears. Of course it was Hanna. Hanna, Aria, and Emily all came into Spencer's room, pulling her into a group hug.

"Guys… can't… breathe…" Spencer managed to choke out.

The girls immediately backed away. "Oh my God," Aria asked her eyes widening. "Are you okay?"

Spencer noticed tears forming in the tiny girl's eyes. "I'm fine. Doing a lot better."

Okay, so that wasn't the complete truth, she felt far from fine, but she didn't want to worry her friends.

"What happened at the lake?" Emily asked, her eyes widening.

"Um, I'm not really sure… I went to the garage, and then someone grabbed me..." she shook her head. "I don't know. It's all a blur."

"Did you see who it was?" Hanna asked eagerly.

"Maybe? I don't know. I don't remember."

The truth? She did know. Or at least she thought she did. She did see the person, but at this point she wasn't sure if the drugs were acting up or if it was real. Just like the Ali dream. She contemplated telling her friends about that. Maybe a little later, when she was out of the hospital. Right now, her head hurt and she wanted to sleep.

"It sucks that you can't remember," Hanna sighed. "Maybe we could have ended this, once and for all."

"I'm sorry," Spencer said sheepishly.

"No. Don't be," Emily demanded. "You have nothing to be sorry for. Aria and I should be sorry we didn't worry about you a lot earlier. Then maybe none of this would have happened."

"Can we not talk about this?" Spencer asked.

"Of course," Aria said. "So, Hanna, have you visited your mom lately?"

Hanna shifted her black bag over to her other shoulder. "Yeah, two days ago. I was going to go yesterday but then I got the call that you," pointing to Spencer, "were in the hospital, and my mom wanted me to come. So I'm going to visit her later today."

Seeing that Hanna didn't really want to talk about her mom, Spencer asked Emily, "How are the renovations with your house doing?"

Emily's eyes lit up. "We won't be able to move in soon, but my mom was thinking maybe we could expand or house a little bit. Now that was basically lost a wall we don't have to pay to get it removed so why not expand now? So my mom was looking for an architect to do the designs. We haven't found one yet."

The three other girls looked at her with the look they usually gave Hanna when she did something stupid.

"Seriously?" Aria asked.

"Even _I'm_ not that stupid," Hanna said with a chuckle.

"Huh?" Emily asked, completely confused.

"Toby!" the three girls screamed at her.

Hearing his name, Toby rushed into the room. "Everything ok in here?" he asked, concern evident in his Caribbean blue eyes.

"Oh my God I'm such an idiot," Emily exclaimed, doing a face-palm.

"What?" Toby asked, confused.

"Are you sure he wouldn't mind?" Emily asked Spencer.

"Do you think he would mind?" Spencer replied, giving Emily a look.

"Can someone please explain to me?" Toby asked.

"Toby, my parents want to expand our house and we need an architect. Would you want to do the designs?"

Toby's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah, really," Emily smiled.

"Thank you so much Emily," he gave her a hug which she returned.

Spencer smiled.

A nurse walked into the room, telling all of Spencer's friends that they had to go. They looked a little disappointed that they didn't get to spend more time with their friend, but they understood. When the left, the nurse closed the door and told Spencer,

"We have to run some tests to see if you have any bleeding in your head. You already have a concussion, and we want to make sure there is nothing else wrong. Are you ready to go?"

Spencer took a deep breath. "Yeah."

**There's Chapter 3. Now tell me, do you want Spencer to have bleeding in her head or should I save more drama for later chapters? You tell me!**

**~A**


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